The Maltese Falcon

gga

I don’t normally read detective/mystery novels, but I was given a
recommendation to try reading outside of what I normally
read. Figuring that if I am to grab a book from another genre, I might
as well do that genre justice, I decided to read this.

Ultimately though, I just don’t have much to say and I probably won’t
be going out of my way to read any more detective novels. That’s not
to say it’s not a good book, but the characterisation was just
bizarre. Sam Spade is the original hard-as-nails private eye - I’m
sure he’s intended as a character to be admired; as something or
someone to aspire to. But that’s just not something I could do. I’m
sure at some point in the past Spade’s attitude to women was
admirable, but I could certainly never do that. Spade’s interaction
with the police was fantastic though - a real sense of
reality. Hammett was clearly writing these scenes straight from
memory.

The story and mystery was enjoyable, with plenty of twists, just as
you’d expect. Personally though, I just don’t get deeply involved in
figuring out a mystery. Figuring out the people: for some reason
that’s much more interesting; much more of a mystery.

This is the original private eye novel: everything that came after is
just a refinement of the mould set in this book. As I was reading,
when I needed to visualise scenes, I was pulling images from Who
Framed Roger Rabbit? of all places - not establishing the exact tough
tone required.